Each time Randy Staats dresses before a game, he’s greeted with the reminders of what turned him into this player.

On his right shin is a winged No. 45 tattoo — a permanent reminder of a friend and the reason he wears the number.

On his left leg, a bit higher up, is a scar on his knee — the remnants of a pair of surgeries that made him more than just raw talent.

And the lacrosse stick that he holds in his hand — which used to be all that mattered for Syracuse’s newest star — is now just what matters most.

Those are all part of why he’s just now arriving at Syracuse. Any player who ends up going through the junior college ranks to get to the Division I level, as Staats did for the past two seasons at Onondaga Community College, has a story. For some it may be grades, personal issues or size.

For Staats, it’s maturity. He didn’t work hard, but for a while he didn’t have to. Add in a pair of knee surgeries and a friend’s tragic death, and he’s had to grow up fast to finally join No. 2 Syracuse this season.

“I just did everything in my power to be who I am right now,” Staats said.

Just like it always had for former Syracuse star and cousin Cody Jamieson, lacrosse came easy for Staats. Like any other Iroquois boy, he had a miniature wooden lacrosse stick in his crib and started playing when he was 2 years old.

Staats’ dad, Marty, a former box lacrosse player, introduced him to the game, but Jamieson quickly became his idol.

Jamieson was 6 years older than Staats and was the best player in town. He always wore No. 88 — so Staats did, too.

Without professional stars to look up to, the best kid in town becomes iconic. Jamieson wore it because a talented kid a handful of years older wore it. It wasn’t much longer before Staats was one of those.

He made his way off the Six Nations reservation in Ontario for his freshman year of high school at The Hill Academy, a boarding school in Vaughan, Ontario. That was where he started to turn heads.

There was plenty of talent at The Hill — Denver midfielder Jeremy Noble and Georgetown’s Travis Comeau played there, too — but Staats had something special.

“A lot of players, even though he was younger, kind of looked up to Randy because he played at such a high level,” Hill Academy head coach Brodie Merrill said.

His roommate, Jamieson Kuhlmann, couldn’t have been more different. Staats has an outgoing personality and an infectious smile, but also brings a certain swagger to the field. The game came so easy, so why shouldn’t he be confident?

Kuhlmann, on the other hand, was one of the less experienced players at The Hill. A bit more shy and reserved, Merrill said.

Photo Illustration by Drew Osumi | Staff Photographer

Staats helped Kulhmann come out of his shell. He gave him the nickname, “Jammer,” and helped him become part of the tight-knit group that the first Hill Academy team was.

“I think (Kuhlmann) really progressed and grew as a player and as a person through that experience,” Merrill said.

That spring, The Hill traveled to Baltimore to face future Tewaaraton-winner Steele Stanwick and Loyola Blakefield, the No. 1 team in the nation. Merrill said Staats was the best player on the field.

But it couldn’t last. The Hill was a bit too rigid for Staats. He was becoming a transcendent player, but he still had plenty of room to grow as a person.

Before the next season began, he returned to Six Nations where he would play for McKinnon Park Secondary School in Caledonia, Ontario.

It didn’t get any easier for Staats that summer, when he lost his friend.

After The Hill Academy’s first season, Kuhlmann was playing for the Toronto Beaches in the Ontario Junior A Lacrosse League, when an on-field collision knocked him unconscious on the field and into a coma.

He died two days later.

Staats honors him with the tattoo on his right shin and will wear No. 45 for the Orange this season.

“All the guys were really tight, so it was a devastating loss,” Merrill said. “They kind of came to The Hill to maybe get away from some of the stuff that was happening at home and to choose a different path, so there was a unique connection for all of the guys.”

Back in Six Nations, Staats still played some field lacrosse, but box lacrosse was the game of choice.

Even in the deeply talented community, Staats was one of the best.

“His skill level was there,” Jamieson said. “His maturity level wasn’t.”

He was always bigger and stronger than most kids his age, and he definitely had some good genes. His dad was a great box lacrosse player and coached the Canadian Lacrosse League’s Iroquois Ironmen.

The star, though, was Jamieson. He was the one who put up ridiculous numbers at OCC, and the one who had just scored the national championship-winning goal in overtime for Syracuse. All during his first season, and only his sixth game. SU hasn’t won a title since.

But in 2008, Staats was just a 15-year-old like any other 15-year-old in Six Nations. He loved lacrosse. He wanted to make his own name, but he idolized the star in town, which just happened to be his cousin.

Jamieson had become one of the biggest names in lacrosse, so his opinion carried a lot of weight within the Six Nations Arrows of the Ontario Junior A Lacrosse League. His word was enough to get Staats onto the team.

Staats couldn’t wear No. 88 anymore, though — he was finally Jamieson’s teammate. He chose No. 83 because it was similar, but different enough to be his own.

“Now kids are looking up to Randy and wear No. 83 and that’s awesome,” Jamieson said.

There were times when he was as dominant as he was against kids his age, but he spent that summer growing. It was that same summer that he became one of three 15-year-olds to join the Iroquois Nationals under-19 team.

Along with Lyle Thompson and Warren Hill, Staats helped lead the Nationals to a third-place finish at the Under-19 World Lacrosse Championships. Staats and Thompson played on the first line together and Hill was the team’s top goaltender.

When Staats returned to the Arrows just in time for postseason play, he was a different player. He wasn’t as shy on the field and in Game 6 of the championship series he scored an overtime goal to extend the season.

“That was probably my biggest junior career goal,” Staats said. “One of them, anyway.”

So his swagger was understandable. He’d made a shot bigger than most people will make in their lives as a 15-year-old. He was playing competitive lacrosse with some of the sport’s biggest superstars. It was only a matter of time until he was one of the biggest names himself.

In January 2010, though, that came crashing down. He was playing in a tournament down in Florida. He tried a dodge and tore his ACL.

That injury kept him out for a year. During the fall he started playing again. Once again, he tore his ACL.

Two full seasons without lacrosse. He missed both the 2010 and 2011 OLA seasons. Division I stardom was once a certainty. Now he’d need a pit stop at OCC.

But it made him grow up. He never had to work this hard on a lacrosse field before.

“I kind of just thought that lacrosse would always be there for me,” Staats said. “I kind of just took it for granted, and once it left me for two years I was pretty lonely and I was pretty desperate.

“I just never wanted to feel like that ever again.”

He didn’t have the same explosiveness that he did before the injuries, but everything else was improved. His knowledge of the game was still there and he’d continued to improve his shooting, passing and stick skills.

He didn’t waste any time putting himself back on the map at OCC. He broke Jamieson’s single-season scoring record in 2013 and helped the Lazers to back-to-back national championships.

“On the field, I couldn’t stand him,” said SU faceoff specialist Mike Iacono, who played against Staats in the 2012 and 2013 JUCO national championship. “Every time he gets the ball he scores. What the hell kind of crap is this?”

Unlike most JUCO transfers, Staats wasn’t able to get on the field during the fall. It was a final hurdle that he had to cross in his long journey to Syracuse.

He wasn’t always a lock to be in orange — he was close to 50-50 between Maryland and SU — but it’s a perfect fit. His cousin won the last national championship for SU, and the school has a rich tradition of Native American players.

He’s always had the talent to succeed at Syracuse. Now he has the maturity, too.

“I’m just excited to play for Syracuse,” Staats said. “I’ve been waiting a while to step on the field with all these guys.”

Published on February 13, 2014 at 1:30 am

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2